Myths: (1) Orca or Killer Whales are fish. NO. (2) Orca are aggressive enough to attack humans. NO. The only attacks on humans, some fatal, occurred by Orca’s in captivity. This, one has to understand. (3) The large back fin of the Orca always flaps over. NO. Only in Orca’s in captivity. (4) The Orca has one of the largest brains within the animal world. YES.

I was privileged enough to meet these wonderful creatures in 1978 when I and my little son visited Victoria, BC in Canada NW Coast, when the Marine Park SEALAND OF THE PACIFIC – Oak Bay Marina – was still in operation.

One of the major attractions has been Tilikum, a big beautiful bull whale. All whales, it should be remembered, were kept in captivity in small metal cages. They were also at that time thrown together independent of their ‘family’ or pod relationship, a dangerous concept because of frequent infighting among the animals.

Tilikum (“Tilly”) had been involved in several deadly attacks on humans. While at Sealand of the Pacific, he with two other orca’s submerged the trainer Keltie Byrne who subsequently drowned. That tells you: “do not play with 12000 lbs of killer whale assuming that they are only song birds.” These whales were frustrated with their captivity, their stressful lifestyle (kept at night in 20×30 metal pens), and the unnatural acts they were asked to perform for the public’s enjoyment. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand_of_the_Pacific ]

SEALAND closed down 1993. (This facility like similar others for large marine animals had a dark history of acquiring their whales: separating them with boats from their pods and chasing them into inescapable waters, to then trap them and move them into the facility.)

It is heart breaking to see how many marine parks exist on the basis of such abuse to an extremely intelligent mammal.